Pleb Lab is a Bitcoin hackerspace and community accelerator. While it was founded in Austin, Texas, there's no reason that should remain the only Pleb Lab. This document aims to outline possible means of replicating the Pleb Lab model elsewhere.
Bitcoin won't succeed without more involved. BitDevs is a popular model for technical meetups for discussing Bitcoin in a structured manner; Many cities have a BitDevs, and it's distributed and permissionless; anyone can start a BitDevs. We humbly put forth, not only should every city have a BitDevs, every city should have a local Pleb Lab. Perhaps these two can go together, with the local Pleb Lab serving as a gathering and presentation space in the evenings, after serving as a coworking / hackerspace.
Polls are valuable ways to gauge early interest. Element supports polls, in addition to Telegram and X. A great next step would be to set up a BTC Pay Server with a crowdfunding option, or to use Geyser to organize a fundraiser for initial capital to open the organization's first Lightning channel, which can potentially pay for things like the first month's rent and furnishings, which also provides inbound liquidity.
Pleb Lab currently uses Slack, but Element and Matrix might also be good choices for communication between members.
We recommend spinning up a Sovereign-Stack node to host a Ghost instance for hosting information for those interested in participating in local Pleb Lab events. It will also provide a Lightning node and BTC Pay Server that can be used to collect member dues.
Ideally, in this model, 3-4 individuals-- either representing themselves or their organizations-- are able to get together and serve as "anchor tenants" within a small, inexpensive space, to bootstrap the space itself. Additional members can sign up and join in support, and these funds can be allocated in a transparent way for the community.
Pros:
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Cons:
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TODO: Thoughts on the venture-funded approach
Pros:
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TODO: Recommendations on finding commercial real estate, things to consider
TODO: What legal documents are needed?
A recommended format for naming a new local Pleb Lab would be, if it were in Denver, for example, Denver Pleb Lab. This is similar to how each BitDevs is prefixed by its city.
TODO: Add logos and branding
A Lightning Door should be set up. TODO: More details on Lightning door, how to set up, link to code